This is a terrible email to get. Do I believe them that the passwords weren’t nabbed as well? No, I don’t. So I have to change every site that uses this same password.

How annoying!

TiVo® Service Announcement

Dear TiVo Customer,

Today we were informed by our email service provider that your email address was exposed due to unauthorized access of their system. Our email service provider deploys emails on our behalf to customers who have opted into email-based communications from us.

We were advised by our email service provider that the information that was obtained was limited to first name and/or email addresses only. Your service and any other personally identifiable information were not at risk and remain secure.

Please note, it is possible you may receive spam email messages as a result. We want to urge you to be cautious when opening links or attachments from unknown third parties.

We regret this has taken place and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We take your privacy very seriously, and we will continue to work diligently to protect your personal information.

If you have unsubscribed in the past, there is no need to unsubscribe again. Your preferences will remain in place.

Saturday I bought a Philips SRP5107WM/17 Universal Remote Control for about $14 at Walmart. Best purchase I have made in a while. Until I bought the newer version, the Philips SRU5107/27, that works with XBox 360 for $17. (I am taking the older version back to Walmart.)

I have five devices I would like to remote control and each have their own remote control. No, it is not OK to have 5 remote control devices on your couch. (Ok, if I get the XBox working, I will use it for the DVD player, so it could only be four). Here are the devices.

This new remote I purchased worked perfectly with my Motorolla Cable Box, Magnovox DVD player, and Tivo Series II. I couldn’t find a perfect match for my Proscan 40″ LCD TV, but I found one that had all but a couple of buttons working and then I used the “Learn” feature the remote control has to fix the remaining buttons. The learn feature is seven levels of awesome!

The one device that is eluding me is the XBox. Supposedly an XBox 360 works with a Universal Remote Control, but I haven’t yet discovered what to do to make it work.

You can get a slightly newer version for a few more dollars through Amazon directly or from an Amazon affiliate for cheaper or the same with shipping that I have linked to on the left of this post. Posts say it worked with the XBox 360 first try. So I will take the older version back to Walmart and have ordered the newer version from Amazon. We’ll see how it works.

Update: I got the Philips SRU5107/27 from Amazon and it works with XBox 360 using remote code 1611. Yeah!

I am very impressed. I thought I was going to have to spend $100 or more but I didn’t. I am getting it all done for under $20.

Update: Just bought a new Blu-Ray player and this thing still works! It is still the best universal remote I have ever seen under $20.

I wanted to watch a TiVo recording on my laptop…running FreeBSD. I had never done this, so I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen.

Gratefully, I succeeded. Here is what I had to do.

Step 1 – Find my media access key.

You can find this on your TiVo, but since I didn’t have a remote, I couldn’t look on my TiVo. So I went to http://www.Tivo.com, logged in, and sure enough under My Account, there was a link to see my Media Access Key.

Step 2 – Download a video recording from your Tivo

Connect to you Tivo using your favorite web browser using https. Note: I wasn’t sure of my Tivo’s IP Address so I had to connect to my Wireless router and look at its DHCP leases.

Login using these credentials: User: tivo Password: [your media access key]Once in, you will see a list of recordings in a table and you can download them as you desire.

Download your recording. Your recordings are .tivo files.

Step 3 – Install tivodecode

When I tried to play the .TiVo file with mplayer, it failed. So I looked at how to convert it.

Hold down the TiVo and TV POWER buttons simultaneously until the red light on the remote control remains on.

Remove your hand from the end of the TiVo remote control.

Enter code 0999.

After you enter the code, the red light will flash three times and then remain on.

Press CHANNEL UP once every two seconds. This will test hundreds of codes, one by one.

IMPORTANT: Do not go any faster than this or you may skip over a code that works.

If you press CHANNEL UP and your TV turns off, press ENTER to select the code. Press the TV POWER button to test the code. If your TV turns on, you have successfully programmed the remote.

If you cycle through all the codes, the red LED will go off, indicating that you have tried all the codes. If this happens, or if you selected a code but the TV does not respond to the test, try again, to make sure you did not skip over your code by going too fast.

If you cannot find a code that works, your current remote may not be preprogrammed with the code for your TV. If you have a TiVo HD XL or Series3 HD DVR, you have a learning remote that can easily be “taught” to control your TV. For instructions, go to Using the Learning Feature of the TiVoGlo or Series3 Remote.

If your DVR did not include a learning remote, you can purchase a TiVoGlo Premium learning remote at the TiVo Store.

I gave it a try and the first time I pushed the Channel up button, it turned my Proscan LCD TV off, but the TV Input button acted as a mute button. So I tried again.

The second time I tried this, my TV turned off again on the first Channel up press, but I continued pressing the Channel up button until somewhere between the seventh to ninth time. I selected this one and sure enough it mostly worked:

TV Power button

Works

Volume Up button

Works

Volume Down button

Works

Mute button

Works

Mute button

*Opens the TV Input screen

* Ok. There are two problems left.

The Input button loads the input screen, but unfortunately it then needs the Up and Down arrows from the original remote to select an Input so I cannot change input.

The sound button only moves one step. I can hold down the sound buttons and the sound continues to move up or down. But holding down the sound button on the Tivo remote doesn’t continue to change the sound.

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